BHS lends support to business reuse exchange pilot

An online corporate 'freecycle' network has been launched to encourage sustainability, reuse and collaboration between businesses and charities.


The site – globechain.com – is a free service enabling charities and organisations, particularly SMEs, to either request or dispose of useful items that are still usable and in working order that might otherwise end up in landfill.

One of Globechain’s first corporate users, national retailer BHS, uploaded a number of shop fittings onto the site as part of a pilot scheme to monitor tonnage diverted from landfill as part of its CSR objectives.

The charity benefiting from this trial is St Michaels Hospice, which has taken delivery of the fittings for a shop in Hastings that is undergoing refurbishment.

Approximately two tonnes of fixtures and fittings were donated – if St Michael’s Hospice were to purchase that amount of equipment, it would cost up to £ 3,000.

The charity’s head of trading Chris Jones said it was important that shop expenditure was kept to a minimum. “A service such as Globechain helps us to achieve this, allowing us to update and refit our shops without any expense,” he said.

Over 100 companies have already registered on the site including West London Waste Authority, the London Reuse Network and the Charity Retail Association.

Maxine Perella

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